The moment Lynn opened his eyes, the arguing stopped.
The entire world seemed to have been muted.
The Saintess’s tender pity, the Knight Commander’s cold resolve, the adoptive sister’s naive cruelty, and the young dragon’s possessive growl—everything turned into a thick, suffocating silence the instant he regained consciousness.
Four pairs of eyes, eight gazes, from four different directions, nailed onto him like spikes.
There was no joy in them, no concern.
Only a look that chilled him to the bone, the look one gives an “object.”
They were inspecting him, appraising him, like butchers sizing up meat on a chopping block, deciding where to make the first cut.
Lynn opened his mouth, but his throat was too dry to make a sound.
He tried to sit up, but the excruciating pain radiating from his entire body kept him immobile.
Especially his back and right arm—the pain was so sharp it felt like someone was pressing a red-hot branding iron against them repeatedly.
“You’re awake.”
Alicia spoke, her voice soft.
She was still kneeling beside Lynn, maintaining her healing posture.
The hand covered in Holy Light slowly moved away from his back and then gently pressed against his chest.
“Don’t move.”
Her tone brooked no argument.
“Your injuries are severe. You need thorough purification and blessing.”
A warm, holy energy seeped through her palm into Lynn’s skin.
It felt good, like soaking in a hot spring.
But Lynn’s heart sank.
He saw a point of light at Alicia’s fingertips, brighter and more pure than the surrounding healing Holy Light.
That light slowly traced a complex, winged Holy Emblem onto the skin of his chest.
This wasn’t healing!
This was branding!
“What are you doing?!”
Vivian’s voice suddenly sharpened.
She stepped forward, reaching out to grab Alicia’s wrist.
“A blessing from the God, to protect a lost lamb.”
Alicia didn’t even look up, waving her other hand to create a wall of light that blocked Vivian.
“Do you intend to obstruct divine grace, Knight Commander?”
“Divine?”
Vivian sneered.
“All I see is a witch defiling my… my comrade with her sorcery!”
Her hand rested on her sword hilt, Sword Qi flaring.
Cracks instantly spiderwebbed across the light wall.
Just as the two were about to clash again, Lilith’s soft, eerie voice sounded.
“Big sisters, please don’t fight.”
She was cradling Lynn’s bloody, mangled right hand.
Her other hand now held a small, intricate black ring engraved with complex magic runes.
She lowered her head and gently kissed Lynn’s finger.
Then, she slipped the ring onto Lynn’s ring finger.
The moment the ring touched his skin, it contracted automatically, fitting his finger perfectly.
A sliver of cold, abyssal magic seeped from it into his body.
Lynn shuddered.
He could see a circle of black, tattoo-like magic runes flash briefly on his left ring finger before vanishing beneath his skin.
“You!”
The Holy Emblem branding on Alicia’s chest was also complete.
She whipped her head around, golden eyes blazing with fury.
“This is a ‘wedding ring,’ you know.”
Lilith looked up, her smile pure and innocent.
“Brother promised to stay with me forever. I’m just… helping him keep that promise.”
Vivian looked at the Holy Emblem on Lynn’s chest, then at the faint black pattern on his finger. Her breathing grew ragged.
Her eyes turned red.
These two despicable women!
They took advantage of his weakest moment to leave their marks on him!
She couldn’t fall behind!
Vivian released her sword hilt and grabbed Lynn’s uninjured left hand, spreading his palm open.
She removed her knight’s glove, revealing pale fingers, then pressed two fingers together like a blade.
A crimson-gold Battle Qi glow lit up her fingertips.
“Lynn, look at me.”
Her voice trembled slightly, but held more of a paranoid determination.
“I am your sword and your shield. From now on, your glory shall be with the Slan Royal Family.”
Before her words faded, she used her Battle Qi-imbued fingertip to swiftly carve a simplified Griffin Emblem—the symbol of the royal family—onto Lynn’s palm.
Sizzle—
The faint sound of searing flesh and the smell of burnt meat drifted through the air.
The intense pain made Lynn’s whole body twitch, but he didn’t even have the strength to scream.
He could only watch helplessly as an indelible brand was added to his palm.
“Awooo!”
Ignis, who had been pushed to the sidelines, grew frantic.
It didn’t understand what the three women were doing, but it could sense they were adding things that didn’t belong to its “treasure.”
This was a challenge to its ownership!
The young dragon let out a furious roar, its massive body shoving Lilith and Vivian aside with brute force.
It lowered its huge draconic head, sniffing Lynn all over as if searching for a patch of “untainted” territory.
Finally, its gaze settled on Lynn’s neck.
It opened its maw.
Lynn’s heart stopped.
He thought the dragon was going to bite his head off.
But Ignis didn’t bare its fangs.
It merely extended its rough, barbed tongue and gave Lynn’s neck a firm lick.
It felt like being sanded down by an oversized sheet of sandpaper.
A burning, stinging pain.
Lynn didn’t need to look to know his neck was now marked with a blood-streaked patch of dragon saliva.
Having done this, Ignis settled back contentedly, resting its head on Lynn’s legs and rumbling with a purr-like sound, like a cat that had claimed its territory.
The hall fell into dead silence once more.
Alicia stared at the brand on Lynn’s palm and the saliva on his neck, her brow furrowed.
Vivian glared at the Holy Emblem on Lynn’s chest and the magic ring on his finger, her silver teeth clenched.
Lilith swept her gaze over all the “new marks” on his body, her smile growing increasingly eerie.
The war over “ownership” had reached a brief, suffocating peace in the most absurd and terrifying way possible.
No one could claim him exclusively.
Because each of them had left a “part” of themselves on him.
Lynn lay motionless on the cold floor.
He could clearly feel the four foreign presences on his body.
On his chest, the Holy Emblem pulsed with waves of warmth, as if constantly reminding him of the God’s gaze.
On his left ring finger, the magic ring emanated threads of cold, like a lover’s most sinister whisper.
On his right palm, the royal brand throbbed with a lingering, searing pain, arrogantly declaring the dominion of power.
On the side of his neck, the dragon saliva caused a numb itch—the most primitive marking of a beast.
He was no longer a person.
He had become a colony claimed simultaneously by four nations.
A canvas recklessly painted upon by four artists.
A moving, living totem pole.
Lynn slowly closed his eyes.
He saw the System Panel in his mind.
[Alicia: Blackening Value 89%]
[Vivian: Blackening Value 91%]
[Lilith: Blackening Value 95%]
[Ignis: Blackening Value 85%]
The numbers were high. Terrifyingly high.
But they were stable.
They weren’t rising anymore.
Lynn suddenly understood.
They had found a new equilibrium point, one they could all temporarily accept.
That was—division.
Today, they had divided the right to leave marks on his body.
What about tomorrow?
Would they divide his meal times?
Or the bed he slept in?
Or perhaps…
Lynn didn’t dare think further.
A fear deeper than death completely swallowed him.
The desperate, self-sacrificing scheme he had pulled off with all his might hadn’t bought him a chance to escape.
It had bought him a one-way ticket to hell.
A life sentence composed of four prison cells of different styles, collectively named “love.”